Bulgaria - Greece

A little bleary eyed we said goodbye to Francis and continued on along the coast until we reached Nessebar. We drove through the new town to the old town and port area on a peninsular reached by crossing a short causeway. There were crowds of tourists wandering the streets full of souvenir shops and restaurants. We found a carpark charging €3 an hour and went for a walk round. The hour quickly passed and as we had to pay another €3 whether we stayed for an extra ten minutes or another full hour we decided to get some lunch. While wandering around we had noticed another parking area, a municipal one and wondered if we might be able to stay the night. There was no problem. We parked right on the waters edge looking across to ‘Sunny Beach’ one of the highlights of Bulgaria’s coast for €6 for 24 hours. Everything seemed fine, we talked to an Irish couple who have an apartment close by and a American couple who were travelling round Europe for a few months before returning to the USA to start travelling in a ‘fifth wheeler’ trailer home, however as evening came so did the noise. Although Sunny Beach was a good two kilometres away across the water by mid evening the disco’s had started and we could clearly hear the music, even the DJ. Neon lights came on as the sun dropped, the Sunny Beach party set had begun. It was like Benidorm back in the 70’s or Ibiza today, the music went on till 5 am, so another restless night. Passing through towns the following day there seemed to be a tension in the air, several times we were shouted at. At one point we inadvertently entered a pedestrian area, there were no signs, and although I passed through without problems, Tom & Fran were blocked by a number of people. They were shouted at and sworn at and we blocked from passing. They had to turn down a narrow side street and find an alternative way through, it upset Fran. While it’s wrong to base an opinion of a country on just one part our experience wasn’t good. We had only intended to follow the coast along the Black Sea and enter Greece, maybe if we had travelled further inland things would have been different, but we didn’t and in the end decided to push on into Greece without delay.

Leaving Bulgaria and entering Greece was easy, a quick look at our passports by the Bulgarians and nothing as we entered Greece. Some years ago I’d stayed at a municipal campsite in Alexandroupoli, on the coast, some 120 kilometres from the Bulgarian border, so we headed there. On arriving we found it expensive, and although they don’t usually accept dogs, they would allow Timmy, Tom & Fran’s Border Collie to stay, but only on one of two pitches, both of which weren’t very nice. Continuing on we eventually came to Orestiada a good sized town where I found a good place to free camp near a little used railway line and close to the town centre. Having parked up we walked into town for something to eat before returning to the campers hoping for a good nights sleep after the last couple of restless ones.